Food, not so glorious Food

Food is a subject that people always seem to get around to talking about. I have talked about and worried about it all my life.

Not worrying about weight is one very good thing about being in the DR Congo. We don’t have a scale and don’t really think much about weight, for the first time in my life. We have less appetite for some reason. I read once that the antibiotic that we have to take for malaria can suppress your appetite and then the food also looks and tastes a little different. So, eating is a different experience.

It also helps that many African women are not small, thin people. In his books set in Botswana A. Smith calls them "traditional African women" and that's a good thing. I like that I fit in. I would not have like to be in Nepal, like Taysoms, where all the people are size 0.

They don’t seem to have negative feelings about weight and the terrible body image problem here in Africa that we have in America. But what has made me forget about weight most is that I feel like the only thing people, in general, see when they see us is WHITE. They don't see many white people, so I'm sure we look pretty weird to them. Many just stare at us, especially the kids. I love to wave to them or say hello and watch them hide behind their mother's skirts. I hope that someday we will make friends. I just feel like people don't look at the rest of me, except maybe the friends we are making in the church and they will accept me as I am. So, it all works. Kind of nice!

Here we have found that food is one of our challenges. There’s plenty of food to eat, but so many of the things we are used to using are not available. Examples-shortening, sour cream, cream of chicken soup, tortillas, nuts, cottage cheese, parm. cheese, corn syrup, eatable chicken, soy sauce, bacon, meat that looks familiar, etc. , etc. etc. I brought lots of recipes, but when I go to make something there are always a few ingredients that I don't have, can't get.

Protein is the biggest problem. Hamburger is good, although it's about $6 a lb. Chicken breasts, which is our major protein at home, are not available. They only have whole chickens here. We tried them! Twice! Both of us ended up not eating at all. Just can't do the dark meat. Cuts of beef are different and I haven’t been brave enough to try any yet. I found a pork loin for the first time the other day. It was small, but nice and cost $12. I bought it anyway. I cut it into six small chops and will try them. We do have yummy yogurt, milk, eggs, and good cheeses, but all dairy products are only available in full cream versions, even powdered milk is whole milk . So, that's not the healthiest thing to eat too often. No fish looks like something that we want to eat. I'm not much of a fish eater at best. They have dried, salted fish. There are some fish in the freezer at the store, but it’s kind of unknown types with strange appearances. Mystery fish is not a good idea! As we cross the bridge over the river on the road to Likasi, there are always little boys holding up wriggling fish for sale, but we pass on those too. There is also a man in the city who always has a string of what look like sparrows that he's selling. Again, we pass. On the menu at the Italian restaurant we went to they had warthog and impala, along with Italian food, but we also passed on them. They do have delicious pizza there. Oh, we are picky, picky!

There are beautiful dried beans and when it gets cooler I can make chili and bean soup with the beans that are available. They look very good.

Actually, we have eaten a lot of peanut butter sandwiches or cheese and bread or yogurt since the power seems to like going out about dinner time.

Africans cook on charcoal brasiers. I think that they have figured out the undependable nature of electricity and know how to get around it. I might have to buy a brasier just for when the power is out. You use them like a stove top with a single burner, but then we could cook something when there is no power and it might be a fun adventure if some of the sisters would show me how to use one.

There are more canned foods than I thought there would be here in Lubumbashi, but they are pricey too. About $1.50 per can for any veggies or fruits, $6 for a small jar of Ragu or peanut butter. They generally come from S. Africa and those we've tried are very good. Food is still a challenge, which is strange since there is food everywhere. On every street corner people are selling things, but there is not a lot of variety or it's something that we don't recognize. It’s that way with fruits and veggies too.--lots of tomatoes, potatoes, cucumbers, onions, cabbage, sometimes a little lettuce and carrots. We have not seen broccoli or squash and we've seen celery, cauliflower and green beans only once. We found a package of frozen peas the other day for $6 and were thrilled.

Pears, apples, oranges, pineapple and bananas are plentiful. They taste wonderful . There are no berries, apricots, peaches, lemons, grapefruits or grapes.

I think that we just need to be a little braver. It’s all a little funky and also has been washed in soapy, bleach water.. I 'm pretty sure that Brent has dropped a few lbs. Not good! So, we are going to have to work harder to adapt to the differences in food. Someday I even want to try fufu.

Wow, that was a lot of food talk. I promised myself that I wouldn’t obsess about food while we’re here, but I think that I might be doing it. I seem to spend a lot of time thinking about, buying and preparing things. Almost everything has to be prepared from scratch. Tonight I made spaghetti sauce from fresh tomatoes, onions, garlic, and other spices I brought from home. There is not a cake mix or brownie mix in sight. I must admit that I would love just one trip to Costco. Top of the list-- frozen chicken breasts!!!!!! Then canned chicken, then chicken nuggets, roasted chicken, grilled chicken, orange chicken! Wow!! Enough food talk.

We went to Likasi again yesterday to work on district conference that will be in two weeks. It’s an all day trip and pretty hard driving. We have 8 km of “teeth rattling dirt road” on the two hour drive, but we get a good laugh every time as we bump along. It's better than an amusement park.

The police stopped Brent several times on this trip. In a very small village they said he was speeding (which we were not a bit sure of) and we'd have to pay $100. Brent just looked very innocent and told the officer that we were not rich Americans, but poor missionaries and this was our first trip alone to Likasi to help our members and we didn't have much money, so the policeman settled for a Book of Mormon and $12 worth of Congolese francs and went away happy! Just another part of the adventure of Africa!

It’s actually sometimes better when driving the Likasi road to go on the dirt by the side of the road rather than on the paved street on some parts of the drive, since there are so many huge potholes.

The big trucks drive on the side of the road a good deal of the time. I guess a pothole could easily tip this kind of load.

We passed the many villages again and they make us so sad, especially the children of the villages. There is so little hope for them to ever have a better life with no school, devastating poverty and isolated circumstances. Some of them will get no education and just work from the time they are little to scratch out a living in the bush.

It may be that some of them just like the slow village life and wouldn't want to move to the villes, but it is just heartbreaking to us!!

Notice that this is a restaurant, but we didn't try it

In Africa there are lots of children. It sometimes seems that almost every young woman has a baby on her back. They carry them that way until they are old enough to walk. They wrap a scarf around themselves and the child, leaving their hands free to do whatever they need to do. It's actually rather smart, but I'm always worried the kids will squirm, loosen the wrap and fall out. The babies seem totally content and are usually sound asleep and I've never seen one drop yet.

Most people here have large families. Many have 8-10 children. It's also very common to take in the children of relative. Our dear friends, the Mongas, have three children of their own and four that belong to other family members. Those family members could not give their children an education or a good home environment, so the Mongas took them in. Frere Monga says, "It's the African way." It is so inspiring that the African people would so generously reach out to help family members in this way and change these children's lives for the better.

Mongas daughter, Miriam and niece, also Miriam

We will be going to Likasi again next Sat and Sun. for a District conference. That will be our first African hotel experience. It will be another interesting experience. Brent is the Likasi district "visiting authority." Don't know how that works. Not that Brent is not a good guy and a great speaker, but in Tempe we have general authorities come and here in the Congo, they get Brent. He will do a great job and they are hungry for knowledge and listen with the spirit, so it will be a good experience for us all. I will meet with the district and branch axillary leaders. The spirit is strong in Africa, despite many challenges. So, life and work go on. We are learning so many things. We will be better people for having been here. We hope the people will also feel that they are better for us having come. We do love them already!